Georgia Water Planning District Takes Measures to Increase Downstream to Alabama and Florida

For many years now, Georgia has been in a battle with Alabama and Florida over who has the right to use the water reservoir of Lake Lanier as a main water supply.   In 2009, Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that Atlanta didn't have the right to keep Lake Lanier water from neighboring states and gave Georgia until July of 2012 to settle the dispute with Alabama and Florida over where the water should flow south of the lake.

Jim Scarbrough, a delegate on the Gwinnett County's water authority said "We're trying to show our neighbors to the south, namely Florida and Alabama, as well as the judge that we're doing a pretty good job with water conservation."  The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, charged with creating the new conservation measures claims it will reduce consumption by 130 million gallons a day by the year 2035.  The new measures will conserve water as well as increase downstream flow to south Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

One of the biggest changes taking place to put this plan into action is the installation of new water meters with "point-of-use" leak detection.  These will allow residents to get more involved with their water consumption by being able to monitor their own water use, almost down to the drop.  Kathy Nguyen, Cobb County water efficiency manager, said the devices will allow customers "to set their own goals for what their use should be" and alert the homeowners to leaks that occur.

Water Conservation Tightens in California

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay is a man made estuary used to supply the people of the north, their crops, and wildlife.  Currently, the Bay Delta is used for a filtration point for the water for the people in Southern California, but in recent events their have been proposals to circumvent parts of the water flow to channel it south.

When everything is Hunky Dorry, the water supply is working fine, but when their is a disruption such as an earth quake, the water supply can become quickly contaminated.  This is the reason for the discussion to take some of the water from the north and divert it south.

Several interesting statistics were brought up in light of talk to divert some of the northern's water to the south.  Tom Philip, an economic strategist for the Metropolitan Water District, claimed that families in the Sacramento area averaged 248 gallons per day while Philp's claimed communities in Southern California, like Irvine, only used 100 gallons a day.  He also brought up a point that in Melbourne, Australia rains as water conservation king with only 40 gallons per day.  We think we could all learn a lesson about water conservation from them.